MMA Junkie reported yesterday that TUF 11 winner Court McGee will return to the Octagon at UFC 121 (October 23rd, Anaheim) against Ryan Jensen. In doing so, the well-bearded Utah native follows a proud tradition of Ultimate Fighter winners who take on middling veterans directly after winning their six-figure contracts, and beat them (most of the time) before eventually dropping in weight (some of the time). As a helpful reference, we decided to put together a timeline of those first post-TUF fights, as well as some relevant statistics. Starting at the beginning…

Season 1 light-heavyweight winner:Forrest GriffinFirst post-TUF opponent: Bill Mahood (0-0 in the UFC at the time)Result: Griffin via submission (rear-naked choke), round 1 Is Mahood still in the UFC? No, the fight against Griffin was Mahood’s only Octagon appearance.Does Griffin still compete at light-heavyweight? Yes

Season 1 middleweight winner:Diego SanchezFirst post-TUF opponent: Brian Gassaway (0-0 in the UFC at the time)Result: Sanchez via submission (strikes), round 2Is Gassaway still in the UFC? No, the fight against Sanchez was Gassaway’s only Octagon appearance.Does Sanchez still compete at middleweight? No. Sanchez immediately dropped to welterweight after the show, and has spent the majority of his UFC career there.

Chris Lytle‘s $50,000 Submission of the Night bonus at UFC 110 represented his seventh UFC performance bonus in his last eight fights, which made us wonder: Does that make him the #1 bonus-collector on the UFC’s roster? And who else is in the running? So, with the help of the UG and Wikipedia, we compiled a ranking of the UFC’s top performance bonus leaders, based on available information. When possible, we added up the grand totals of the fighters’ pay-bumps, though the amounts of these bonuses weren’t consistently reported before UFC 70.

Is steroid use an epidemic in MMA? Or are most of the fighters who have tested positive simply the victims of inept athletic commissions, shady nutritional supplements, and tainted goat meat? After Josh Barnett’s latest chemical misadventure took down Affliction, we decided to round up every steroid bust in the sport since early 2002, when the Nevada State Athletic Commission began testing MMA fighters for performance-enhancing drugs. The results…may shock you.

Update, 11/5/13: Beginning with Chael Sonnen in 2010, several MMA fighters have failed drug tests due to elevated testosterone, without being caught for a specific steroid. To keep things orderly around here, we’ve quarantined those busts on page 2.

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JOSH BARNETT (Pt. 1)Caught:4/22/02, following his TKO victory over Randy Couture at UFC 36.Tested positive for:Boldenone, Nandrolone, and FluoxymesteronePunishment: A six-month suspension from the NSAC and the loss of his UFC heavyweight title. Barnett fought the steroid charge, and didn’t compete again in the U.S. until PRIDE 32, four and a half years later. (See: Belfort, Nastula)In his own words: “I am a fighter, not a lawyer. I am innocent, and I should be fighting right now.”Repeat offender: Barnett actually tested positive once before, for two different anabolic steroids, following his submission via strikes victory over Bobby Hoffman at UFC 34 in November 2001. Josh was let off with a warning (which went unheeded, apparently) and the incident was never officially reported — but according to Sherdog’s Mike Sloan, Barnett’s first positive steroid test is what inspired Nevada to begin regularly testing UFC fighters for performance enhancing drugs.

TIM SYLVIACaught:10/7/03, following his first-round knockout of Gan McGee at UFC 44.Tested positive for:StanozololPunishment: $10,000 fine and a six-month suspension from the NSAC. Sylvia voluntarily vacated his heavyweight title following his positive steroid test.In his own words: “[A]fter I fought Ricco [Rodriguez], I was in for a long layoff. I decided to try some things and maybe change my physique a little bit and get in better shape. But whatever I used, it came back positive. I don’t know how that happened. I did it so long ago and I was way off it before I fought McGee. I think they found it in my fat cells. I guess it stays in there for a while, huh?…I heard what Josh [Barnett] had used, so I used something different and I was only using it to trim my physique. I thought that what I was using, it was going to be out by the time I fought McGee. I fought Gan and apparently it wasn’t out.”